With solid expertise built over more than three decades of practice and spanning six states, Stephanie's background includes being a seasoned clinician, consultant, educator (including full-time professor), presenter, author, researcher, program coordinator, consumer scientist (including recipe developer), advocate, counselor, coach, and mentor.

Mission Statement

Our mission is to offer a blog that encourages you to expand your sensory enjoyment of tasty food, rich in vital nutrients, to help you maximize your health and enjoy a flavorful life.
See it, Smell it, Taste it!

Welcome

Welcome to Sensory Nutrition! Please come in and join Stephanie and the rest of the staff here.

The doors at Sensory Nutrition are usually open 24/7, so come in and visit with us when YOUR schedule allows. We would love to share some of our secrets for nutritious and delicious meals you can make as part of your busy 21st century lifestyle.

Whether cooking for one or for many, our motto is: Get more out of life and enjoy life more.

In Part 1 of this blog series we provided some background on chocolate and cacao including some cultural information surrounding the growing of theobroma cacao trees around the world and processing cacao beans from grower through manufacturer.

In our Part 2 of 3 blog post we discussed some of the best known varieties of cacao trees, as well as some of the flavor notes associated with beans grown in different places in the world.

Three of the best known categories of cacao beans that may make their way into chocolate worldwide include:

Criollo which means “native” and this type of cacao bean may be found in Central America, and then in Venezuela in South America and some other locations;

Forastero which means “foreign” and often this type of cacao bean thrives in the Amazon Basin, as well as in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire and other locations. Although most Forastero variety beans have deep, classic cocoa flavor, those from Madagascar might be said to have citrus flavor elements reminiscent of tangerines, while those from São Tomé might be said to have coffee undertones; and

Trinitario (actually a hybrid of the Criollo and Forastero) which means “sent from heaven” and often this type of cacao bean is grown mainly in the Caribbean, having actually originated in Trinidad. Trinitario cacao trees may still be found growing in Cameroon, Ecuador, the Indonesian island of Java, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Sri Lanka, and some still in Venezuela and some other locations.

Most of what is considered to be the bulk chocolate flavor in mainstream chocolate products is contributed from primarily Forastero cacao beans mainly coming out of West Africa & South Africa combined supplying ~70-80% of the world’s cacao crop.

Forastero trees are more disease resistant, which is why that category was introduced into Africa, while over the past hundreds of years since the Spanish first imported Criollo cacao beans from Venezuela, many Criollo trees have been lost to disease.

What are considered to be the flavor note cacao beans are the Criollo cacao beans and Trinitario cacao beans. Today those varieties combined only compromise some 6% of all the cacao beans grown worldwide (~1% for Criollo and ~5% for Trinitario), while a century ago combined they were closer to 50% of all the cacao beans that were grown world wide.

You may be wondering what specific types of flavor notes are considered to be found in the cacao flavor beans currently being grown around the globe.

Why not grab a cup of fragrant not-too-hot tea and we’ll wrap up this blog series on Christmas tea and how it can contribute to helping you and yours to stay healthier during the holidays.

We’ve already mentioned in Part 1 of this series how tea can contribute valuable flavonoids to your diet, and then in Part 2 of this series shared some thoughts concerning brewing tea and its caffeine content as well.

Now we’d like to share some other potential health benefits of drinking a not-too-hot cup of freshly steeped tea and mention just some of the supermarket accessible brands of holiday tea offerings.

Did you know that tea you brew (in either loose form or from a tea bag) can help you stay hydrated year round, may contribute to your oral and bone health, potentially help you age better, and possibly even help you lose a little excess weight?

It’s easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of the holiday season and inadvertently forget about setting aside time to help keep yourself healthier during the holidays.

Sometimes you need to just stop, catch your breath, and maybe even sit down and treat yourself to a wonderfully aromatic warm cup of tea!

It’s important to keep up your antioxidant intake during the winter months and as we noted in Part 1 of 3 of this blog series, especially green and/or black tea made from the tea leaves of the Camellia senesis plant can be an excellent source of important flavonoids.

In Part 1 of this 3 part series we’ll review a little background on tea and tea events, and mention some potential health benefits from its flavonoid content.

In Part 2 of this 3 part series we’ll discuss how to potentially obtain the most flavonoid content by how you steep your tea and some information about caffeine and tea.

In Part 3 of 3 in this series we’ll mention about some other potential health benefits & concerns surrounding tea consumption. We’ll mention tea consumption’s possible impact on hydration level, how it may contribute to better oral and bone health, how it may help with more graceful aging, and even how it might play a role in helping someone to lose a little excess weight.